About Democracy for NYC

Democracy for NYC (DFNYC) is committed to the ideals espoused by Democracy for America, the organization founded by Howard Dean, and the national network of local coalition groups dedicated to the same.

We work both locally and nationally to ensure that fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates are elected at all levels of government. We develop innovative ways to advocate for the issues that matter to our members and support legislation which has a positive effect in our communities. We promote transparency and ethical practices in government. We engage people in the political process and give them the tools to organize, communicate, mobilize, and enact change on the local, state, and national level.

Democracy for NYC has now endorsed 7 candidates in 2012 - President Barack Obama, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Assemblymember Grace Meng (running for Congress in the new 6th district in Queens) were endorsed by our members in June.

There are several hot 2012 races in NYC for the primary ballot on September 13th and the general election November 6th. See below for a list of districts and candidates. Are you supporting one of these candidates? We want to hear from you! Email Political Director Richard Wallner at rwallner-at-dfnyc.org (replace -at- w/@).

Click here for new district maps in New York State after the 2010 Census.

Click here for our page listing all Congressional seats in NY State, including new & old district numbers and hot races.

Bronx

1. State Senate District 33: Incumbent Democrat Gustavo Rivera, who beat the corrupt Pedro Espada in 2012, is now being challenged in the primary by Manny Tavarez, a former sports agent who is against a woman's right to choose and against gay marriage. Click here for the DFNYC page on this race.

2. Assembly District 76: Currently represented by Peter Rivera. We'll have a page on this race soon.

Manhattan

1. State Senate District 31: This seat is currently represented by Adriano Espaillat, who challenged Charlie Rangel in the Democratic primary on June 26th. (CD 13, the old 15th). That race went into overtime, and the BOE recently declared Rangel the winner. Espaillat is running again for the State Senate, as he turned in enough signatures by the July 12th deadline. Guillermo Linares is also running. Click here for the DFNYC page on this race.

2. State Senate District 27: Incumbent Tom Duane announced his retirement in June. There are three candidates on the ballot for the September 13th primary: Tom Greco, Brad Hoylman and Tankia Inlaw. Click here for DFNYC's page on this race.

4. Assembly District 72: Incumbent Assemblyman Guillermo Linares is challenging Adriano Espaillat for the State Senate in SD 31, see above. The candidates on the ballot to replace Linares in the 72nd AD include Mayra Linares (the current Assemblymember’s daughter) and also Gabriela Rosa, Melanie Hidalgo, and Ruben Vargas. Click here for DFNYC's page on this race.

Assemblywoman Grace Meng won the competitive Democratic primary on June 26th. Her Republican opponent will be City Councilman Dan Halloran. DFNYC proudly endorsed Grace Meng in June and we'll be posting volunteer opportunities on our website. In the meantime, click here for NY Daily News coverage of this race by Irvin DeJohn & Lisa Colangelo.

2. Assembly District 40 (the old 22nd): Now that Grace Meng has won the primary for the Congressional seat, there is an election for her Assembly seat. Possible candidates include Democrats Ron Kim (who has the backing of the Queens machine), Ethel Chen, Isaac Sasson and John Scandalios, as well as Republicans Phil Gim and Sunny Hahn. Click here for Colin Campbell's post at the Politicker blog.

Later this week, more than likely on Wednesday, the Republicans in the House will again vote to repeal President Obama's Affordable Care Act. This will be another in a long line of bills that Boehner's House leadership puts up for a vote and passes that have no chance of making it into law. They are once again using the House floor, and the publicity of getting a vote passed to fire up the right wing base.

Nothing fires up the right wing these days more than appearing to fight the Health Care Law. This is the 31st vote they've taken to repeal or defund part or all of Obamacare in 18 months See the following link for the news story:

It is a waste of time and money, and a misuse of power for Boehner and his colleagues in the GOP leadership to continue puttng through what amount to protest bills. We need our lawmakers to focus on practical ways to solve our problems, not spending taxpayer money having meaningless votes.

Our friend Timothy Foley at Greater NYC For Change has created an online petition on Change.org to call out the House leadership on their continued use of pointless House votes for partisan purposes

We encourage our members to sign on and forward to people on your contact list who might be interested. Every signature will automatically cause a copy of the message to go to that persons House representative. It is time for our lawmakers to all act more responsibly.

You likely received an unexpected email from Josh Silverstein, now the former president of DFNYC, this morning. In this message, Josh announced that DFNYC has dissolved. Please know that this is most definitely not the case.

DFNYC remains the local coalition group of Democracy for America. Both DFA and DFNYC were founded in 2004 after Howard Dean's campaign for president.

We want to let you all know that DFNYC not only still exists, but is ready to take on the challenge of getting President Barack Obama re-elected in November. We remain committed to our progressive ideals and intend to work hard to send fellow progressives to Washington and Albany in the fall.

Democracy for NYC held endorsement voting for the primary races in four Congressional Districts where members expressed interest. The voting is finished, the votes are counted, and we have results:

CD 6 - Part of Queens, has four candidates in the Democratic Primary for US House Representative. The percentages they received of the DFNYC vote are as follows (percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number, which sometimes results in a total not exactly 100%):Elizabeth Crowley - 4%Rory Lancman - 12%Grace Meng - 60%Robert Mittman - 4%No Endorsement - 20%DFNYC endorses Grace Meng.

Weblinks

A local coalition group of Democracy for America since 2004

Democracy for NYC (DFNYC) is committed to the ideals espoused by Democracy for America, the organization founded by Howard Dean, and the national network of local coalition groups dedicated to the same.